1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to brackets, specifically to such brackets which are used for supporting Compact Disk cases commonly referred to in the music and video industry as Jewel Cases onto planar surfaces such as walls and ceilings for display of the cover art on the front of the CD case.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior to discussing the background and description of prior art, let us establish a geometrical convention for referring to the conventional 6 sided Compact Disk case. Let the side which displays the cover art be known as the "front side." The opposite side is therefore the "rear side." When the case is held in the normal orientation for viewing or reading the cover artwork we can now refer to the sides adjacent to the top, bottom, left, and right edges of the front side as the "top, bottom, left and right sides," respectively.
Conventional compact disk case storage devices are designed for storage of multiple compact disks. Multiple parallel adjacent slots are provided into which Compact Disks are inserted right side first, allowing only the left side to be visible. Jewel Case storage devices of the type described in the current paragraph suffer from the following disadvantages:
a) They do not provide a means of displaying the cover art on the front of the CD case. PA1 b) They do not provide a means for keeping empty CD cases in a specified, highly conspicuous place, with the front cover art visible, making it easier for the CD owner to find the empty case when needed. PA1 a) It does not provide the user, once the case is engaged into the current bracket, access to the information or artwork visible on the rear side of the CD case. PA1 b) It does not provide the user with a means to readily extract a specified CD case from and/or engage the same CD case into a specified bracket of the present type. PA1 c) It does not provide the user with a means to readily re-arrange the CD cases displayed on a planar mounting surface by swapping CD cases between brackets mounted said surface and/or replace a CD case in an individual bracket. PA1 d) It does not provide a means for mounting Jewel Cases to obliquely oriented planar surfaces an upside-down, ceiling oriented planar surfaces. The claims of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 limit the invention's function to wall mounting. PA1 a) They do not provide a means for the user to arrange his/her CD collection on a planar surface such as a wall in any configuration or pattern the user wishes. PA1 a) To provide a means of displaying the cover art on the front of the CD case while storing said case. PA1 b) To provide a means for keeping empty CD cases in a specified, highly conspicuous place, with the front cover art visible, making it easier for the CD owner to find the empty case when needed. PA1 c) To provide the user, once the case is engaged into the current bracket, access to the information or artwork visible on the rear side of the CD case. PA1 d) To provide the user with a means to readily extract a specified CD case from and/or engage the same CD case into a specified bracket of the present type. PA1 e) To provide the user with a means to readily re-arrange the CD cases displayed on a planar mounting surface by swapping CD cases between brackets mounted said surface and/or replace a CD case in an individual bracket. PA1 f) To provide a means for mounting Jewel Cases to obliquely oriented planar surfaces and upside-down, ceiling oriented planar surfaces. The claims of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 limit the invention's function to wall mounting. PA1 g) To provide a means for the user to arrange his/her CD collection on a planar surface such as a wall in any configuration or pattern the user wishes. PA1 h) To provide a means, for mounting CD cases on a planar surface, that is aesthetically pleasing empty or full, with or without a CD case engaged into it.
i) This is a feature that would be make it possible for a CD collection owner to showcase several of his/her favorite and/or most often used CD's cases, full or empty, on a planar surface such as a wall, with the front cover of each CD visible. PA2 i) This would be a useful feature for preventing misplacement of the empty case(s) of one's favorite CD('s) because said empty case(s) is often left in an unspecified location while said favorite CD('s) may be left in the player for indefinite periods of time for convenience. PA2 i) This would be a necessary feature if the CD owner needed information visible only on the rear side of the CD case. PA2 ii) The rear side of CD cases usually displays artwork and valuable information, such as a list showing the order in which songs appear on music CD's. PA2 i) This feature would be necessary in order for the user to hold the CD case in hand, while the CD is playing, alternatively flip the case over from front side to rear side, and admire the artwork and/or read information on each said side. PA2 ii) This feature would also be necessary in order to examine said case as described in b), i) above, yet be able to readily and securely support the empty case on the planar mounting surface, in said bracket, whenever the case was not in use. PA2 i) A significant example of where this feature would be needed is if a store owner was using such brackets to display 100 CD cases on a wall, in a top 100 pyramid pattern, and needed to swap the CD's between the brackets as frequently as the rankings of said CD's changed on an officially recognized music industry ranking list. PA2 ii) Another significant example of where this feature would be needed is if a user was decorating his/her bedroom or entertainment room wall with CD cases, and wanted to periodically re-arrange the CD cases into various groupings such as genre of music, basic color of cover art, release date, name of artist, etc. PA2 i) The bracket of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 only clamps onto the rear side of the case, and will allow the front side, which is hinged to the rear side, to intermittently swing open due to the weight of the front side. PA2 i) This would be a necessary feature if the user wished to change the pattern in which his/her was displayed, to any pattern such as floral, checkered, or top ten pyramid. PA2 i) This is a feature that would be make it possible for a CD collection owner to showcase several of his/her favorite and/or most often used CD's cases, full or empty, on a planar surface such as a wall, with the front cover of each CD visible. PA2 i) This would be a useful feature for preventing misplacement of the empty case(s) of one's favorite CD('s) because said empty case(s) is often left in an unspecified location while said favorite CD('s) may be left in the player for indefinite periods of time for convenience. PA2 i) This would be a necessary feature if the CD owner needed information visible only on the rear side of the CD case. PA2 ii) The rear side of CD cases usually displays artwork and valuable information, such as a list showing the order in which songs appear on music CD's. PA2 i) This feature would be necessary in order for the user to hold the CD case in hand, while the CD is playing, alternatively flip the case over from front side to rear side, and admire the artwork and/or read information on each said side. PA2 ii) This feature would also be necessary in order to examine said case as described in b), i) above, yet be able to readily and securely support the empty case on the planar mounting surface, in said bracket, whenever the case was not in use. PA2 i) A significant example of where this feature would be needed is if a store owner was using such brackets to display 100 CD cases on a wall, in a top 100 pyramid pattern, and needed to swap the CD's between the brackets as frequently as the rankings of said CD's changed on an officially recognized music industry ranking list. PA2 ii) Another significant example of where this feature would be needed is if a user was decorating his/her bedroom or entertainment room wall with CD cases, and wanted to periodically re-arrange the CD cases into various groupings such as genre of music, basic color of cover art, release date, name of artist, etc. PA2 i) The bracket of the current invention clamps onto the front side of the CD case, pulling with restoring force said front side towards the mounting surface, thereby preventing the case from falling and/or sliding out of the bracket as well as the front cover from intermittently swinging open due to the weight of the front cover. PA2 i) This would be a necessary feature if the user wished to change the pattern in which his/her was displayed, to any pattern such as floral, checkered, or top ten pyramid. PA2 i) For example, the shape of the preferred embodiment is designed to be aesthetically pleasing even when viewed empty, without a CD case engaged into it. PA2 ii) When a CD case is engaged into said bracket, the bracket is inconspicuous.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 describes a CD case wall mounting bracket designed for mounting a single CD case to a vertical mounting surface, allowing the user to open the CD case's cover 180 degrees without removing the case from the bracket. The claims and preferred embodiment of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 do not mention any mechanism, feature, or means for readily extracting the CD case from the wall mounting bracket, implying that extractability of the case from the bracket was not an intended feature of said invention of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674. Therefore, said invention suffers from the following disadvantages:
Of all the prior art, the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 most closely resembles the current invention, so the next few paragraphs will make obvious that the current invention is not covered by the claims of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674, as the current invention is significantly different from the former by form and fit. Comparison of the objects and advantages of the current patent below to the above disadvantages of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 make obvious that the current design differs significantly from the former by function.
The main claim of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 describes a bracket for supporting a compact disk case which has a hinged cover. For the bracket described herein, a hinged cover is inconsequential to the functionality of the bracket.
The main claim of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 covers brackets which clamp onto compact disk cases at the two sides which define the case's width (the left to right dimension of the case when the case is held in the normal viewing position for reading the case's cover). The bracket described herein does not clamp onto either of those two sides, but rather on the two sides that define the case's height (the top to bottom dimension of the case when the case is held in the normal viewing position for reading the case's cover).
The main claim of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 covers only brackets that have arms, clearance between which being approximately the same as the case width, the end of each arm having lips extending towards each other. The claims herein do not interfere with those of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 as those herein cover only brackets having two arms distanced from each other by approximately the height of the case rather than the width of the case. The two arms of the preferred embodiment that do define the case's width have no tabs, lips, or means for clamping onto the CD case, as is covered by the claims of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674.
The main claim of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 covers brackets whose distance between said lips and said base is slightly less than the thickness of the case at each said lip. In the bracket described herein, said distance would be inherently substantial rather than slight, as said means for clamping the case do so at the edges of the holes found on the top and bottom sides of the case, and the dimensions of said holes are substantial compared to the thickness of said sides, which defines the thickness of said case.
The first dependent claim of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 also fails to cover the bracket described herein because the current bracket is designed such that the case does not move under any of the lips of the bracket, as is covered by the claims of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674. Because, as stated in the above paragraph, the clamping mechanism of the current bracket is designed to locate and clamp into holes found in the sides of the case, the arms of the bracket of the current invention are inherently shorter than the height of any of the sides of the bracket. This makes moving the CD case under any part of the bracket of the current invention impossible.
The second dependent claim of U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,674 fails to cover the current invention because it at least repeats all of the issues described in the above two paragraphs.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,537,365 and 4,940,147 describe Compact Disk wall racks that each hold multiple Compact Disks. The racks are mounted onto a wall in the same way a picture frame is mounted to a wall. The racks contain several tabs that locate and receive the Compact Disks in a matrix configuration. Racks of this type suffer from the following disadvantage:
In summary, the prior art includes a variety of CD collection support or storage devices but none permit the ability to support several Jewel Cases on a planar mounting surface in any pattern desirable with the ability to easily extract the Jewel Case from the bracket.